Rock Band vs. Rush

The Canadian rock power trio RUSH appeared on The Colbert Report last Wednesday, performing an extended version of their hit “Tom Sawyer” that reached into the beginning Thursday’s show. Before they took the stage, Alex, Geddy, and Neil accepted our challenge to perform “Tom Sawyer” as part of the video game Rock Band. Check it out!

We've played Rock Band before and found it pretty strange in how it rates your playing, especially on vocals (as Doc and his beautiful voice can attest). So now that we know it failed Rush at their own song, I don't feel so bad anymore.

Baby photos, 20 weeks

Purple dragonfly

Dragonflies frequent the plants in my backyard. The little guys come in so many colors. I've seen tan, red, purple (like this one), bright blue, bright green, and black. This little guy was resting on top of a plant stake and he let me get close enough to take one macro shot before he flew away.

lessons and names

if you grow up to be

just like him, just like me

you're fighting for exclusive rights

for honeymoons each sleepless night

in which case i'll call him appetite

yes, i think i'll call him appetite

so if you take,

then put back good.

if you steal,

be robin hood.

if your eyes are wanting all you see...

then i think i'll name him after me.

i think i'll call him appetite.

I've been memed!

Argh! Brett tagged me in his post and I feel it is my duty as a friend and netizen to follow through.

What I was Doing Ten Years Ago
I was unpacking boxes after moving into our first house, wishing the cats would do a better job at cockroach patrol, and working at a really boring job while trying to figure out how I could get paid for being creative.

Five Snacks I Enjoy
1. tortilla chips
2. apple slices with peanut butter
3. crackers and cheese
4. cashews
5. pistachios

Five Things On My To-do List Today
1. vacuum the house
2. walk 2 miles and stretch
3. don't fall asleep at my desk
4. cook dinner (étoufée, rice, green beans)
5. pay bills


Five Favorite Recipes
1. Rice and black beans
2. Pizza
3. The Big Salad
4. Angel hair pasta with marinara sauce
5. Lentil soup and grilled cheese sandwich


Five Jobs I’ve Had
1. Designer
2. File clerk for mayonnaise company
3. Cake decorator
4. Ice cream scoop jockey
5. Cat washer


Five Bad Habits
1. Biting my nails
2. Watching Seinfeld reruns every night before bed
3. Not dusting
4. Forgetting to water my plants
5. Eating too many tortilla chips


All The Places I’ve Lived
1. Houston
2. Plano
3. Sherman
4. Dallas


Five Random Things About Me
1. I am synaesthetic
2. I drive a Prius
3. I would love to go into outer space, except that I get motion sickness
4. I can wiggle my ears
5. My favorite season is winter


Five People I’m Tagging
1. Doc
2. Yvonne
3. Bob
4. Nate
5. Bonnie

Belly at 19-1/2 weeks

It's getting a little bigger! Just in the past two weeks, it's become obvious. I'm having to use the rubber-band trick on my regular pants now.

Dream... trying to get home

I continue to have strange, vivid dreams almost every night.

Last night, I dreamed I was at work, but work was in an enormous suburban high school. It was so big that it needed shopping-mall-style map kiosks posted throughout. Auditions were being held for something that day, and there was a sign posted on a door that said "Wanted: 100 40-year-old men in cone-shaped hats." It was my job to find rooms for these auditioners to practice and sleep in.

By the time I was done, I realized that it was 9:30 at night, and I hadn't called Doc to let him know I'd be working late, but when I looked at my phone, I realized that he hadn't called me either and I thought that was very strange.

I decided I had better get home pretty quick, so I packed up my stuff and went to look for my car... but I couldn't find it. That is, I couldn't remember how to get to the parking garage where I always parked my car. It was near the rooms where I worked, but I had no idea anymore how to get there. I began to wander through the school, wondering if the reason that I couldn't find the garage was because I didn't drive that day, but even in Dreamland that didn't make sense. I found myself in the center of the school, in an enormous library. It was very much like a European city plaza, with a large flat central area and steps leading up to another level. Students were lounging all over the steps, which were covered in large red and green candy canes and wrappers. I had to pick my way carefully down the steps to the central plaza, trying not to step on anyone or their candy.

I found a map kiosk near the school's food court and realized that the parking garage was all the way on the other side of the building.

Then I found myself in a bus stop on the side of the highway, in bright sunlight. Someone was with me, and it kept switching off between being Kathryn and Brittney. We were waiting for a bus that would stop on the OTHER side of the highway. I was unclear how this was supposed to work; would the bus driver see us and wait for us to attempt to cross four lanes of fast-moving highway traffic? Shouldn't we really go to the other side to wait? There was other no way across except for an overpass a half mile down the road, and I was certain if we walked all the way to that, we'd miss our bus. Brittney decided to see how easily she could cross the road, so she dashed out to the center median, hopped over it, and ran almost all the way to the other side... and then turned around and tried to come back, but by this time there was a car coming. I couldn't figure out why she didn't just go all the way across to the bus stop, but luckily the car was able to stop in time to avoid hitting her as she ran back to the median.

Right about this time, a sherriff pulled up to our bus stop to ask what the problem was. I told him that we were trying to get to the bus stop on the other side of the highway, and he started walking off towards the overpass. He said, "why don't you drive over there," and handed me his keys. I got into his car, which was actually a small pizza-slice-shaped platform with wheels. I sat down on the platform, wondering where I was supposed to put my feet, and tried to put the top half of the pizza slice on top, but it was made of thin wispy tissue paper and was hard to position into place without it blowing away. There didn't seem to be gas or brake pedals, or a steering wheel or ignition, either.

And then I woke up.

Summer Vacation, part 2

So we got off the train, drove to Mom's house in Sequim, Washington, and got a good night's sleep after a long day of travelling. We spent the next week hanging out with Mom and Dad, seeing Bob for a few days, working (Doc has a huge job right now and worked all day every day and half the nights too... when you own your own business, the work is unpredictable), taking the dog for long walks in the forest, snoozing on the patio in the 65 degree sunshine, picking strawberries (44 pounds, from Cameron Berry Farm!), going in to town, going to the beach with the dog, buying fireworks from the Indian reservation down the road and shooting them off on the driveway on the 4th of July, eating lots and lots of Mom's delicious cooking and Dad's smoked brisket, seeing aunts and uncles and cousins and old family friends, shopping (thanks, Mom, for the new maternity clothes!), playing endless fetch with the dog, watching Jonny Quest with Doc and Bob, sitting wrapped in a blanket in front of the fireplace (yes, in July!), enjoying the smell of fresh fir trees and sweet grasses, and generally having a wonderful, relaxing time.

The weather was absolutely fabulous. We had a few days of rain and/or mist but the rest of the time was sunshine almost all day long. The temperature stayed around 60 or so on the rainy days, and might have reached 70 on the sunny days. Cool enough to need long sleeves in the shade!

I discovered that nonalcoholic wine tastes like grape juice that something has gone terribly wrong with. Lesson learned.

We got home late last night, and it was great to see our kitties but I really didn't want to come home.  Why do I still live in Texas? Sigh.

Summer Vacation!

I have been on VACATION!

Yay, vacation!!

Doc and I flew to San Jose, where we stayed with Arushi and Shyamal for a few days at their place in Mountain View. The fires in Big Sur were still burning and there was a lot of smoke in the air. It hung like a pink-brown cloud over everything, and made our eyes sting. We visited the redwood forest in Big Basin State Park in the Santa Cruz Mountains, went into San Francisco one afternoon, swam in her pool, did a little shopping, and went out to Napa County and ate at a fantastic place called Greystone Restaurant, run by the Culinary Institute of America, where i had the best piece of fish I have ever eaten in my entire life. It was halibut, pan-fried in olive oil with just a bit of salt and pepper, and probably caught mere hours prior. It was the most amazingly perfect texture all the way through, and served on a bed of morel mushrooms and tiny baby squash, sauteed in butter.

The weather in northern California is fantastic in the summer. I'm afraid that I underpacked for this trip, bringing along mostly tank tops and capri pants, when what I apparently really needed was long pants and sweatshirts!

We hopped aboard an Amtrak train, the "Coast Starlight," to head up north to Seattle. Train travel is quite enjoyable. It takes longer to get to your destination, but is cheaper and much more scenic, relaxed, roomy, and social than flying. Doc and I rented a small sleeper cabin instead of coach seats, and it was a huge improvement over our last train trip ten years ago, when Doc had a severe case of the flu in coach. The room was tiny, barely wider than the width of a seat, but we could shut the doors and fold down two beds and the privacy was worth every penny. Plus, all meals are included in the price of the room, and although the food was not awful (certainly better than you might expect on a train), the a la carte meal prices were quite inflated. We would have easily spent more than the cost of the room upgrade on meals alone, had we traveled in coach!

The route along the coast is very scenic and beautiful, especially through Oregon. The train huffs and puffs its way along the side of mountains through all this gorgeous countryside. You really can't beat morning sunlight sparkling down on a glittering mountain stream hundreds of yards below, and rocky rapids surrounded by tall fir trees.

The train was three hours late getting into the station in Seattle (11:30 at night!) because, sadly, someone had a heart attack on board the night before and the train had to stop in the middle of nowhere in California to wait for the Careflight helicopters to arrive. We also had numerous electrical problems onboard that resulted in the lights going out every now and again -- this is especially inconvenient when you are using the tiny airplane-style bathroom, which has no windows.

A late train wouldn't normally be that big of a problem, except that my mom and dad had arranged to pick us up at the station and drive us back to their house... two and a half hours away. By the time we got to their place it was nearly 2 a.m. I was so tired from having barely slept on the train the night before, I just fell right into bed and don't even remember my head hitting the pillow.

I'm really tired now, in fact... I'm going to post some photos and then write more about the vacation later!

one night to be confused

Finally, I am really beginning to "feel" pregnant. Not that the ten straight weeks of nausea didn't remind me every single second of the day, but there's something different now. It's kind of hard to put my finger on it.

As I mentioned a few posts back, I think that my center of gravity has begun to shift and I feel like I walk differently. (Or maybe that's just because I'm not particularly concerned about sucking in my stomach these days, as I normally do!) It seems strange that such a small growth (the baby only weighs about 1/4 pound) could cause noticeable changes in my body, but I think that I am very tuned in to the minutest of differences now.

Also, I finally have that firm stomach I've always wanted! Of course, it's just my uterus pushing out against my abdomen, but still! When I press my belly it feels quite firm now. Again, I'm really only at the start of the "showing" stage but it's kind of thrilling. A few people have told me that it's becoming obvious that I am pregnant.

A lot of my regular pants are becoming a bit snug, especially when I sit down, so I have bought a few pairs of maternity pants. They are infinitely more comfortable!

I don't quite feel connected with my baby, as a person, yet. I know something is in there, I have seen him move on ultrasounds, I have seen a heartbeat and little fingers and toes, but despite all the changes I'm experiencing with my body, the baby still seems largely conceptual at this point. Part of me still worries about miscarriage. I guess at this stage it's probably called stillbirth. Maybe that's holding me back emotionally. I hope that soon I can start to feel more attached, because I wonder if I'm missing out on something important. I feel like every time I listen to music, I should be thinking about my baby hearing it too. I feel like every time I eat something, I should think "there's some nice fruit and protein for you, little baby!" But I don't. Am I selfish? Am I too focused on the physical changes to my body and not thinking enough about the actual baby in there?

I don't know.

Sometimes I'll go for hours at a stretch without even thinking about the pregnancy or the baby. It's like I've forgotten about it. That really really gets to me, because one of my biggest fears in life is that I will forget to take care of something important that is depending on me, with terrible consequences. I have dreams about this kind of thing all the time.

I guess I should mention at this point that we know it is a boy. That was a bit of a shock to us, since all this time we have thought that we wanted a girl. So now we're trying to wrap our brain around that, and come up with names. We had the perfect girl's name picked out, but nothing yet for a boy! Everyone has been offering us suggestions; I guess that people like to come up with baby names or something. I think it will be hard to find something that we really like, but we'll get there. We have a lot of time.